As part of the OARC SOTA Day I decided to head up a local hill, Meall Mor (GM/CS-109). The weather forecast for the day was a bit doubtful, with the Met Office issuing a thunderstorm warning. But I woke to a glorious, sunny morning a decided to go for it. I’d deliberately chosen an easy hill that I already knew, as I had enough to think about with the activation.
It was windy on the top and I was glad that I had brought lots of guying options. I put up the 2m Slim-G antenna, but I had a slow start at 1000z on 2m FM. Initially called on 145.400 with no response before switching to 145.500 and making a single contact. I therefore decided to switch to 40m HF with a linked dipole. Again, the wind was challenging but I was impressed with how robust the Sotabeams tactical mini pole is. I chased a bit of S2S before deciding to call CQ. Before I knew it I was working a pile up on 40m. The first pile up I’ve ever worked admittedly! Apologies if my operating technique needs some work. It was great fun though and eventually it all settled and I began to pack up.
Just as I was taking down the pole though I heard some more activity on 2m, including @GM4YMI on Meall a’Bhuachaille (GM/ES-027). So I worked him and another station in Nairn before packing up and heading down the hill, enjoying a light lunch of wild blaeberries on the way!
A thoroughly enjoyable day on the hill. I hope this won’t be my last SOTA activation.
